Footwear inflation falls in euro area
Eurostat figures show that annual inflation in the euro area was 4% in July, flat compared with June. However, the rate in July 2007 was just 1.8%. Monthly inflation was down 0.2% in July 2008.
EU annual inflation was 4.4% in July 2008, up from 4.3% in June. In July 2007 the rate was 2%. Monthly inflation was down 0.1% in July.
In terms of EU member countries, the lowest annual rates were recorded in the Netherlands (3%), Portugal (3.1%) and Germany (3.5%) in July, while the highest rates were in Latvia (16.5%), Bulgaria (14.4%) and Lithuania (12.4%). Compared with June 2008, annual inflation rose in fifteen Member States, remained stable in five and fell in seven.
The lowest 12-month averages up to July were registered in the Netherlands (1.8%), the United Kingdom (2.6%) and Portugal (2.7%), while the highest were in Latvia (15.1%), Bulgaria (12.3%) and Estonia (10.1%).
In the euro area, the main components with the highest annual rates in July were transport (7.2%), food (6.7%)and housing (6.7%), while the lowest annual rates were observed for communications (-2.2%), clothing (-0.5%) and recreation and culture (0.2%).
The main components with the highest monthly rates were recreation and culture (1.3%), hotels and restaurants (1.3%) and housing (0.8%), while the lowest were clothing (-9.3%), household equipment (-0.4%) and communications (-0.3%). In particular, package holidays (+0.15 percentage points), accommodation services (+0.11) and fuels for transport (+0.05) had the largest upward impacts, while garments (-0.5) and footwear (-0.13) had the biggest downward impacts.
